Iraq saw one of the bloodiest days Saturday with a string of car bombings killing an estimated total of 60 in Baghdad, while a further 59 died in the country’s north. Several fatalities were also reported after militants took students hostage in Ramadi.

In Baghdad, the most
severe of the attacks took place in Bayaa, the capital’s
southwestern neighborhood. There alone 23 people were killed –
the majority of whom had been young and engaged in a game of
billiards.

Clashes in the northern city of Mosul took lives of 21 police and
38 militants as the fighting spilled over into the second day, an
officer and mortuary employee told AFP.

On Saturday, armed militants also took over a university in
Ramadi, located in the western province of Anbar, capturing male
and female staff and students. The gunmen fought their way
through the Anbar University guards, wounding some, and blowing
up a bridge.

Security forces “liberated all of the male and female student
hostages from the dormitories in Anbar University” and
regained control of checkpoints at its entrances several hours
into the assault, Deputy Interior Minister Adnan Al Assadi stated
in an email to AFP.

Two people died – a student and a policeman according to hospital
sources.

One of the university guards told Reuters: “I think the
militants will withdraw as their target was not the university.
They came to stay in Humaira, and we know how important it is for
them…they want to be connected with their gunmen in Falluja. I
think the security forces realize that.”

However, targeting the university could also have marked a change
in methods.

“It could be a change of tactics” Middle East expert, Deepak
Tripathi, told RT. “Although it seems that the incident is
over…these students are going to go out and they will speak about
their trauma to others, and that is a sign of pretty
sophisticated terrorist tactics.”

“Militants in Iraq…are not afraid of dying. So if they had
launched this attack to kill and die in the process, then in all
probability they would have done that. They have withdrawn and
now the consequences will appear.”

Almost 800 people were reported to have been killed in Iraqi
violence last month, two-thirds of the victims being civilians.

While the bloodshed remains below the levels seen in 2006 and
2007, last year was Iraq's deadliest since violence began to ease
in 2008. In 2013, 8,868 people were killed in terrorist attacks
or other acts of violence, according to UN statistics.